Merging the Physical with the Virtual in the Metaverse

In a previous blog, I talked about how digital twins and industry 4.0 will play a big part in the development of the metaverse but that’s only half the picture.

Bringing in real-world, real-time data into the metaverse to simulate potential events is one thing, using that information and insight to effect change in the physical world for the better is another.

Pulling a digital twin into the metaverse not only allows you to recreate it in full with live data, you can place it into the rest of the rendered world where live data also is fed - meaning it will operate or behave exactly how it would in the real world.

Want to model how a car’s characteristics would behave with the same conditions that are taking place right now (weather, population, other vehicles on the road)? You can do that in the metaverse.

But why stop there with only industrial applications?

Take wearables and health tech as another example. Imagine bringing your healthcare data into a virtual environment and using it to simulate the effects using your avatar? Having an app to track your steps and stats on a daily basis is a two-dimensional representation but being able to see the effects on a rendered virtual twin of yourself could add another perspective entirely to greater effect.

Another example is the collision of the virtual and physical worlds of fashion and design.

Louis Vuitton is launching a video game where your character has the opportunity to buy and acquire NFTs (non fungible tokens), it includes 30 NFTs, ten of these created by digital artist Mike ‘Beeple’ Winkelmann, who, in March 2021, shattered the record for most expensive digital artwork with Everydays: the first 5,000 days, a collage piece that sold at Christie’s for a value of $69.3m.

The game itself is based on young Louis’ own adventures at the age of 14.

As the player assumes the role of this eccentric monogrammed flower character, they collect candles, each of which unlocks a postcard containing an anecdote. These 200 anecdotes – which span Louis Vuitton’s collaborations, special orders, technical trivia, family history, artistic interventions, runway highlights – are then stored in Vivenne’s monogrammed trunk.

It got me thinking in terms of how the world of fashion will be merging with the metaverse to the point both could intertwine in new ways.

Take Exclusible. Set to debut this autumn with curated drops, Exclusible is a platform made specifically for luxury brands to sell NFTs, and for customers to buy, trade, and showcase them. Once purchased, an NFT can be displayed in the user’s gallery, shared on socials, or sold on a secondary market. The goal is to attract both NFT enthusiasts and traditional luxury buyers. They will also be incentivised with gamification and social elements.

Already, Exclusible has signed letters of intent with a few high-end designers.

They are in discussions with global luxury brands, and has raised $2.4 million in pre-seed money.

Take this idea one step further and a designer could debut a new collection either entirely in the metaverse, or simultaneously run a catwalk in the real world at the same time as one in the metaverse - showing off both exclusive and mutually available collections.

At some point in the future, a collection made only for the culture of the metaverse (metapunk fashion) via NFTs will influence the physical world of fashion itself.

Training has also already been proven to be more effective in virtual reality, in the metaverse because of the accessibility without the need for glasses (typically through browser-based access and no native app required) this will be exponentially so.

MetaVRse for example offers a ‘code optional’ engine to build virtual and interactive environments purely accessed through your web browser. This means that immersive training could be accessed on a tablet or phone and actioned in the physical world in real-time. If there are amendments to be made to the training steps or materials these could immediately be documented and submitted, changing how the training environment behaves and instructs.

The metaverse is a collaborative and immersive environment that should blend both the physical and virtual realms to the point that data exchange and interactions become fluid and affect each other.

In order to deliver this vision, the importance of standards and interoperability cannot be overstated. Something that Nvidia’s Omniverse, which they colloquially describe as ‘the plumbing’ is trying to achieve.

Also published on: https://www.metapunk.co.uk/metablog/8-2021-when-worlds-collide-merging-the-physical-with-the-virtual-in-the-metaverse

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